Writer of Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Poetry and Master Photographer
(Feedback used in this post was not solicited. —MKB) Let’s face it, writers have egos. Those egos are fragile and no matter how large, they need feeding. I tell my creative writing students that a writer has to have an ego. If you’re going to put words out in the world for people to read…
One thing about writing a book is that you learn so much. Galvanized was a fun education for me, mostly North Carolina history from the early 1800s through the late 1880s. One of the characters I’d always been fascinated about is Zebulon Vance. Vance was a legislator, governor, senator, and mostly loved by the people…
“‘The Civil War is just as complicated now as the day it started.’ . . . Brantley deftly combines military and social history, a gripping narrative of one private soldier, and his personal struggle to make sense of a savage, fratricidal war and the morally fraught heritage that continues to haunt the South.” —Philip Gerard,…
By Michael K. Brantley Two convicted murderers met their fate on the gallows in Nash County’s last public hanging on March 15, 1900. The story of John Henry Taylor and Robert Fortune and the murder of Robert Hester is a tragic one. All that end in capital punishment are. It’s also a story of mistaken…
“As the author’s research reveals the journey of his great-great-grandfather across Nash County and battlefields of the Civil War, Michael K. Brantley discovers that exploring the past reveals the explored but changes the explorer. A worthy literary effort!” —Wade G. Dudley, author of Remembering North Carolina and Splintering the Wooden Wall I was honored to get this quote…
By Michael K. Brantley There is some interesting art that often gets overlooked — in post offices across the country. These are big murals that were painted mostly in the 1930s and 40s. I’d always heard these were done by the WPA, but a little digging revealed they were actually commissioned by the Treasury Department’s…
At long last, my book has arrived. Galvanized: The Odyssey of a Reluctant Carolina Confederate took years to research, interrupted by a liver transplant among other life events. But, it was a lot of fun working on it and I’m excited for you to read it. Basically, I was looking information about my ancestors for…
In my newspaper column this week in The Nashville Graphic, I offered some reading suggestions for folks who are unable to get out. [Note: the newspaper content is free until further notice.] I’m thinking for some folks, these authors might be slightly under the radar, but they shouldn’t be. Of course, high on my list…
I’ll be back to blogging soon. The new job has taken a lot of time, even though it’s been great. I have a backlog of things to write about and of course I’ll be talking about my new book and other projects. In the meantime, I’m going to start cleaning out my notebook of interesting…
Earlier in the year (March), I posted a piece about the “gold rush” in North Carolina, particularly in Nash County. You can re-read that story by clicking here. One of the places I focused on was the old Portis Gold Mine. Just recently, the owners made a remarkable discovery — a dredge that has been…